Musical Traditions of Polish Jews

translated by Maria Piłatowicz

Cover of Fuks's monograph, Warsaw, 1989.

At the source of Jewish music in Poland lies the religious, synagogical culture and folklore.[2] The beginnings of
religious music date back to biblical times and today it is difficult to distinguish those elements which have endured
in the traditional form, and those added on, and layered over the passing millenia to
ultimately endow the music with
its peculiar style, form, melody, and color. The synagogical music of Polish Jews was subject to
various influences,
among them the music of Jews from Eastern and Western Europe, as well as motives from Christian religious hymns. In past
centuries traveling cantors, often accompanied by a small, simple choir, brought with them either old or quite new
melodies for prayers. Those melodies were not immune to the influences of regional
folklore and not only Jewish folklore.[3]
Services often became concerts of a peculiar kind, where the cantor (chazen) and the choir celebrated an event which was
as much aesthetic as it was religious (in traditional synagogues instrumental accompaniment had been forbidden since the
destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem). Among the cantors individual qualifications and education varied widely.
Some finished seminary and sometimes also had musical training. The majority, however, acquired their skills in practical
training under a more or less prominent or famous "chazen" or cantor.

Common characteristics among the Jewish cantors in Poland, as well as in neighboring countries — Lithuania, Bielorus, and
Ukraine — were: exceptional musicality, a fine, strong voice (lyrical or heroic tenor, baritone, or even bass), an intense
spirituality and emotional interpretation, as well as the ability to improvise, which bordered on the creation of original
compositions.[4] Within the Polish territories there were cantors of legendary fame,
who were popular and recognized not only
among the faithful, but also among the non-Jewish musical elite. For instance the very young, not quite 14-year old, cantor
Joel Jaszunski (d. 1850) also known as "Baal-Bejsyl," who was greatly admired by Stanisław Moniuszko and other Polish, nineteenth-century composers and musicians.[5]

The development of synagogical music in Poland was accelerated to a great degree by the construction of many new, large
synagogues at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. It was quite obvious that the more
magnificent the temple, the greater the ambitions as to the quality of the musical and vocal aspects of the services. The
demand within the Polish territories for highly trained cantors resulted in many of them reaching the level of the best
European opera singers and advancing to successful worldwide careers. Particularly
influential in the area of Jewish sacred, vocal and musical culture was the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street
in Warsaw, built by Leandro Marconi in 1878, which was a flourishing cultural site until the tragic days of the German
occupation.[6] During the most
important services and especially festive holidays, besides the constantly praying faithful (predominately from the ranks of a
rich Jewish plutocracy), the Grand Synagogue was frequented by prominent Polish musicians, singers, clergy, and government
officials. It is also worth mentioning that the Great Synagogue in Warsaw was one of the few in Poland, before the war,
called "reformed" (or "German") because, along with the choir, they allowed the accompaniment of
organ music throughout the course of the service. During the period between World War I and World War II, many cantors from
other Warsaw synagogues — one located in the Praga section of Warsaw, and another on Twarda Street which operates to
this day — enjoyed worldwide recognition. The most prominent of them was Gerszon Sirota (1877-1943) known as
the "King of Cantors" or the "Jewish Caruso" who often performed abroad, and gave concerts of secular music as well.[7] He was
considered a superb dramatic tenor of great force and sweetness, the master of coloratura. He had a thorough musical education
and was occasionally reproached for his "operatic mannerisms." The efforts of the opera theaters in many countries to lure this
magnificent tenor to the stage proved fruitless. He remained faithful to the synagogue. His voice was captured on many recordings,
which are still distributed in the United States and in Israel; before World War II they were occasionally played by the Polish
Radio. However, Gerszon Sirota was not the only renowned cantor in Warsaw.
Cantor Mosze Kusewicki (1889-1965) was a singer of equal celebrity and a relative of the famous American
conductor Sergei Koussevitzky. He was an object of passionate ardor for his fans and was torn between many invitations
for guest performances abroad; he also made many recordings in Poland and in the United States. What saved him during World
War II was his flight to the U.S.S.R. where he sung tenor parts at the Georgian Opera in Tbilisi. After the war he settled
in the United States.

The synagogues in Poland were also known for excellent choirs, which were often as large as one hundred or more singers. Many of
them gave performances of secular music as well. One of the finest was the choir at the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street in
Warsaw, led by David Ajzensztadt (1890-1942). Its sound was a true revelation. The choir often appeared in public
concert halls with a repertoire of secular as well as sacred music, performed for the Polish Radio. The choir took part in the 1935
production of the opera by Lodovico Rocca, Dybbuk staged by the Warsaw Opera Theatre, and joined the renowned choir of Mosze
Szneur, at the Warsaw Philharmonic, for the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.[8] One of the finest pages
in the history of Jewish musical culture in Poland was the formation and support of literally hundreds of Jewish choirs.[9]

The music of the Hassidic Jews, the mystic orthodox sect, combines the elements of both sacred and folk music. One of the leaders
of the Hassidic faction, Nachman Braslawer (1772-1811), characterized the adoration of God through song and
dance: "Come, and I will show you the new way to God. Not through words but through song. We will sing and the heavens will
understand . . ."[10] Hassidic song and dances, which usually expressed ecstasy and were full of exaltation, were most often composed by musicians
and singers, who were members of the various Hassidic courts assembled around a saintly rabbi. Unfortunately, the majority of
Hassidic musical composition was anonymous and only rarely recorded in musical notation by the Jewish folklore collectors. To
this day old Jews in Israel and in the United States are helping musicologists to preserve this unique folk legacy, which once
added splendor to various festive or solemn family occasions (betrothals, nuptials, baptisms, or funerals) and to religious
holidays.

Alongside Jewish religious and Hassidic compositions there are many Jewish folk songs dealing with a variety of themes:
historical, social, family, love songs, lullabies, soldier songs from World War II, and songs of the Jewish
Underground and the Ghetto. Fortunately, quite a few of these songs were preserved, so that at present, we have at our
disposal many great recordings by vocal groups from many countries. The lineage of Jewish folk songs varies widely. There is ample evidence in those compositions of the influence of national
groups among which the Jewish population had settled — therefore, also Polish folklore. More likely it was a mutual
exchange, with Polish folklore absorbing elements of the Jewish musical culture as well. Melodies popularized by so called
"Klezmer Bands," which played at Polish taverns, weddings and at the country manors of the Polish gentry, can serve as a good
example of the means of such exchange.[11] Many of the Jewish folk songs were created at the spur of the moment, by autogenous
poet-singers, improvising and composing music and lyrics simultaneously, at the request of their audience. Their lyrics
were often meditative, filled with deep melancholy over the human fate, and mirrored the everyday hardships and joys of common
folk. The music varied from sweet, almost cloying melodies, to lively Hassidic dances.

There were many poet-composers before Mordechaj Gebirtig (also known as Bertig; 1877-1942), who was considered
the last of his kind.[12] He was born in Kraków and was a carpenter by profession, but he was also a poet and a bard, whose songs
were written down by his musician-friends because he himself never mastered musical notation. His songs were actually musical
renditions of folk poetry, for example: "A Small Orphan, A King is Born, or Play, Play Children ["Huliet, huliet
kinderlech"] which became virtual hits and were sung by popular Jewish actors such as Molly Picon, Josele Kolodny and
Gebirtig's daughter, Lola. He composed more than one hundred songs, many of which were lost. His most emotionally wrenching
compositions — Bells are Ringing ["Dzwonią Dzwony"], The Day of Vengeance ["Dzień Zemsty"] and others — were
created during the war in the Kraków Ghetto. One of his songs written in 1938 entitled Fire! Our Town is on Fire! ["Gore,
nasze miasteczko gore!"], became a call to arms during the German occupation, a hymn of the burning cities and fighting Jewish
ghettos.

Jewish musicians called "klezmers," who traveled across the Polish countryside from the beginning of the sixteenth century,
were the co-authors and primary popularizers of Polish and Jewish folk music. They played in the court bands and/or folk
bands, which often had dual, Polish-Jewish membership; they also played at taverns and weddings — Polish as well as Jewish.
They were usually self-taught and not familiar with musical notation, but often inspired admiration because of the extraordinary
skill and mastery of their instruments, be it violin or something else.
There were also "klezmer" musicians traveling alone, who sometimes became the sensation of a country fair or a busy tavern, going
on from there to perform at the palace of a duke or count, and then on to the grand concert halls. Such was the career
of Józef Michał Guzikow (1806-1887) virtuoso of a strange instrument of folk origin, the "straw harmonica" which was the prototype of
today's xylophone.[13] The most distinguished composers, musicians and intellectuals of the time, among them Karol Lipiński,
Fryderyk Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Franz Liszt, George Sand and Lamartine, all listened to him and admired his skill and
artistry. Guzikow came from the village of Szkłowa (Shklova), Bielorus, but considered himself a Polish Jew. He performed
his own arrangements and variations on Polish themes: songs, mazurkas, polonaises, and Jewish, Polish, and Byelorussian folk
tunes. His career took him from the country fairs and city courtyards all the way to the great European concert halls, and
even to the stage of the Paris Opera House. He was on the front pages of Polish, German and French newspapers, and today his
name may still be found in most music encyclopedias. Many of the prominent composers who had heard Guzikow were fascinated by
his technical brilliance and by the sound of his original folk instrument; they began to include parts for the xylophone in their
works and incorporated the instrument into the symphony orchestra.

Guzikow was by no means an exception. There were many others like him. One of the most interesting Jewish musicians of the
nineteenth century was Mordko Fajerman (1810-1880) who served as a model for the character of the Jewish
musician Jankiel in the most treasured Polish national poem Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz.[14] Fajerman —
a dulcimer player — was renowned in Warsaw for his unparalleled renditions of mazurkas and polonaises. In 1805 Josef
Elsner (Chopin's first music teacher), in one of his dispatches to the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung
in Leipzig, wrote "Jewish musicians play the polonaise with such a Polish spirit — they are unsurpassed."[15] Also Franciszek
Benda, the Czech virtuoso violinist and composer who for "musical practice" joined a Jewish band for a time,
mentions in his memoirs a blind Jew, Lebel, who "played his wild dances with unusual flair, exquisitely beautiful tone, brilliant
technique and bravura."[16]

Jewish intellectuals — those of the middle-class and those holding government posts, as well as workers, college students,
and youth of school age — participated in many forms of Jewish musical culture. They frequented the concert halls and
opera theaters in great numbers. They also made the most of events sponsored by the local Jewish musical societies, some of
which, like the Warsaw chapter for example, had their own symphony orchestras. During the 1930s the Jewish Musical Institute
was operating in Warsaw and in a number of cities, music schools or music courses were organized and run by local Jewish
communities. There were also many chamber ensembles and smaller orchestras consisting of amateurs or professional musicians.
There were, moreover, a dozen or so Jewish theaters performing in Poland at that time. Each put on both plays and musicals
which customarily featured original works by contemporary Jewish composers such as David Bajgelman, Józef Kamiński, Henoch Kon, Szlom Prizament, Herc Rubin, Icchak Szlosberg, Izrael Szajewicz
and Leon Zalman.[17]

The contribution of Jews to Polish music proves to be an interesting subject of study. The majority of musicians in many
symphony orchestras were Jewish. At the beginning of this century when, as a result of the vision of Emil Młynarski and
Alexander Reichman, the Warsaw Philharmonic was about to open its doors, and almost half of its newly hired musicians
were Jewish. Among the members of the orchestra we find such names as the young Paweł Kochański and his
brother Eli, the cellist, who later taught at the Warsaw Conservatory, another renowned cellist Gregory Piatigorski, and Adam
Furmański, the trumpet player and conductor. Also listed is the name of Grzegorz Fitelberg who was leader
of the second violin section before becoming the conductor and later musical director of the orchestra.[18] It is impossible to
list here all the famous Jewish musicians who were members of the Warsaw Philharmonic. Also, the position of permanent
accompanist at the Philharmonic was held by Ludwik Urstein, also known as the "King of Accompanists," who
was very much in demand by famous virtuosos.

Over the years the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra was populated by entire families of Jewish musicians — e.g., the Szulc
family, the Ginsburgs and the Szpilmans. Later, during the German occupation, many of the same musicians played
in the Jewish Symphony Orchestra in the Warsaw Ghetto; most of them perished along with their conductors Szymon Pullman,
Marian Neuteichen, Adam Furmański, and David Bajgelman, murdered by Germans.[19]
If we were to compile a list of Jewish conductors leading Polish orchestras (some of whom achieved worldwide recognition),
it would certainly be impressive: Gregory Fitelberg, Juliusz Wertheim, Artur Rodzinski, Paweł
Klecki, Ignac Neumark, Bronisław Szulc and others.[20] Many outstanding
musicians who have performed in the
recent past were the offspring of Jewish families from Polish territories, among them: Artur Rubinstein, Bronislaw Huberman
—the founder of the prestigious Tel Aviv Philharmonic Orchestra — violinists Henryk Szeryng
and Ida Hendel, pianists Ignacy Friedman, Maurycy Rosenthal, Leopold Godowski, Mieczysław Horszowski, and the
famous harpsichord virtuoso Wanda Landowska — not to mention a rather large contingent
of contemporary instrumentalists and composers.

The music of Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1888), composer and violinist, is very much alive today. Wieniawski was
a son of a country doctor, Tobias Pietruszka, whose whole family accepted the Catholic faith and changed their name to
Wieniawski, after Wieniawa—a suburb of the city of Lublin where they lived.[21] In the second half of the nineteenth
century, conductor and composer Adam Mincheimer (1830-1904) was very popular in Warsaw. After the death of Stanisław
Moniuszko he became the director of the Warsaw Opera Theater. He composed four operas (Otton the Archer,
Stradiota, The Avenger and Mazepa) and co-authored with Moniuszko the music for the ballet Satan's Capers.[22] Another
prominent Jewish composer and musician of that time was Ludwik Grossman (1835-1915), composer of the opera Fisherman From Palermo
staged in Warsaw and Paris, and another opera entitled Governor's Ghost, which was very successful in Warsaw, Petersburg,
Vienna, Berlin and Lvov.

At their home, the Grossmans maintained a fashionable "Salon"—one of the prominent centers of cultural life in Warsaw —
where formal soirees were often graced by the performances of famous artists or musicians. Grossman's Salon was frequented by
many writers, composers and actors, among them, novelists Bolesław Prus and Henryk Sienkiewicz,
composer Piotr Tchaikovsky, musicians Anton Rubinstein and Pablo Sarasate, as well as actress Helena Modrzejewska.
Ludwik Grossman, a man of many talents and much energy, owned a piano manufacturing and storage company with his partner
Juliusz Hennan; he was also one of the co-founders of the Warsaw Musical Society.

Many composers of popular music also lived in Warsaw. Adolf Sonnenfeld (1837-1914), whose style was considered Viennese by
some, was also often called the "Polish Offenbach." He was renowned for his musical inventiveness and rare ease in creating
new melodies. From time to time his compositions, such as dances or fantasies, appeared under the pseudonym "Gustaw Adolfson."
He wrote seven operettas, co-authored a vaudeville — A Trip Through Warsaw — with Feliks Szober, and
composed two ballets, Meluzyna and Sir Twardowski. The latter was extraordinarily successful at the Warsaw
Opera Theater and had 560 performances. Later, however, Sir Twardowski was overshadowed by a ballet of Ludomir Różycki
with the same title.

Leopold Lewandowski (1931-1896) was also an accomplished composer, violinist and conductor. He is chiefly known
as a creator of nineteenth-century dances — the "Polish Strauss." He composed more than three hundred pieces, most of them
dances of uniquely Polish character. His mazurkas were particularly full of flair and bravura, his obereks were fiery,
his kujawiaks sorrowful, and his polonaises resolute and gallant.

The twentieth century brought forth many notable names of Jewish composers from Poland. Among them were the first 12-tone
composer in Poland, Józef Koffler (1896-1944) who was killed by the Germans; Karol Rathaus (1891-1954), the composer of two
ballets, The Last Pierrot and Lion in Love,and the opera Foreign Soil; Szymon Laks
(1901-1983) who spent most of his life in Paris; and Aleksander Tansman (1898-1991) one of the most distinguished of the
contemporary composers, creator of symphonies, oratorios, operas and ballets.

Polish musicologists and music critics of Jewish extraction played a considerable role in the formation of Polish musical
culture during the time between the wars as well as after World War II. The most influential among them were Józef Reiss,
Zofia Lissa, Alicja Simon, Maksymilian Centnerszwer, Leopold Binental, Cezary Jellenta, and Mateusz Gliński.[23] Before
World War I Aleksander Reichman was one of the most active initiators, organizers and managers of the construction of the
Warsaw Philharmonic, which opened in 1901; later he became its first director. He was also the founder, editor and publisher
of the journal Echo Muzyczne, Teatralne i Artystyczne.

The so-called "entertainment industry" was, until the onset of World War II, dominated by Polish Jews. Along with the film
producers, most composers of popular music and film scores were also Jewish. The names of Henryk Gold, Artur Gold, Jerzy
Petersburski, Henryk Wars, Zygmunt Białostocki, Szymon Kataszek, Fred Melodysta, and Ada Rosner appear among the credits in
films produced in Poland during the 1920s-30s. To this day their songs and melodies are often heard on Polish Radio and
television. Celebrated hits such as Tango Milonga
(which attained worldwide popularity under the title of Donna Clara),
Blue Scarf [Niebieska chusteczka], Never Again [Już nigdy], I'm Afraid to Sleep Alone
[Ja się boję sama spać], A Bit
of Luck in Love [Odrobina szczęścia w miłości],and many more were written by Jerzy Petersburski. He Won't Come Back [On
nie powróci już], Forget Him [Zapominsz o nim], I've a Rendezvous With Her at Nine [Umówiłem się z nią na dziewiątą],
Does Miss Agnes Live Here? [Czy tutaj mieszka Panna Angieszka?] and scores of other songs were composed by Henryk Wars.
One could cite endlessly the titles of hit songs and names of their composers. To mention one more: Artur Schutz was the
composer of Red Poppies on Monte Cassino [Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino], one of the songs of World War II most cherished
by the Poles. Although the fame of those composers and the popularity of their tunes were often limited to the local arena,
their contribution makes a unique page in the history of Polish music.

The beginning of World War II brought a sudden halt to the diverse activities of musicians and composers who were Jewish or of
Jewish descent—the Nuremberg Laws were merciless. In the Warsaw Ghetto, which was the largest in the territories occupied
by Germans, hundreds of Jewish musicians found themselves without means of survival. For a time they struggled with the aid of
community-based cultural organizations and tried to help themselves by establishing the Jewish Symphony Orchestra, which played
the classical repertoire and gave regular concerts between 1940-1941. Many fine musicians in desperate situations performed in
small theaters and even on the streets and in the courtyards of the Ghetto. Tragically, only a few were saved by Polish friends
outside the Ghetto; the majority perished in the ovens of the Treblinka Concentration Camp. What remains is their music — folk
melodies, classical and popular music, and recordings that bear witness to the Jewish musical culture, Jewish and Polish music,
which they had created with a sense of belonging to the people among whom they had lived for centuries.

[5]. See the research by Leon Tadeusz Błaszczyk, Żydzi w kulturze muzycznej na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku. Słownik
[Jews in Musical Culture in Polish Lands in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Dictionary], forthcoming. I thank Bret Werb for providing me with a copy
of this publication.
[Back]

[6]. The Great Synagogue in Warsaw was designed by architect Leandro Marconi to accomodate 3,000 people. In addition
to the great prayer hall it also contained meeting rooms, a library and a school. It was blown up
on 16 May 1943 to mark the defeat of the Ghetto Uprising. See Jan Jagielski and Robert Pasieczny,
A Guide to Jewish Warsaw (Warsaw: Jewish Information and Tourist Bureau, 1990). [Back]

[8].
Fuks names Lodovico Rocca as the author of Dybbuk, staged by the Warsaw Opera Theatre. Il Dybuk was an opera by Italian composer
Rocca (1895-1986) based on An-ski's play of the same title and premiered at La Scala in 1934.
Mosze, or Mojżesz Szneur (properly Sznejer), was born on 8 April 1878 in Cherson and died in 1942
in Uzbekistan. After music studies with Noskowski at the Music Institute in Warsaw, he became a military band conductor; he
founded and conducted the Jewish Folk Choir active in Warsaw (1912-1938), also directing other Jewish choirs. See Błaszczyk, op. cit.[Back]

[10]. Nachman Braslawer (1772-1811) or Nachman of Bratslav, was a Hasidic Rabbi and
a spiritual leader of a separate sect of Hasidic Jews in the Ukraine, the Braslaver Hasids. See Arthur Green, Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (University of Alabama Press, 1979).
[Back]

[11]. According to the entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online,
"the Yiddish term klezmer (pl. klezmorim; from the Hebrew word for musical instruments),
was first used for the professional musician in the 17th century by Jews in eastern Europe.
The klezmer profession originated in the older Ashkenazi centres of central Europe," especially of Bohemia where the
four to five-piece ensemble was formed (lead violin, contra-violin (sekund), cimbalom (cimbal), bass or cello, and occasionally a flute).
The clarinet was a later addition (early 19th century) and the ensemble gradually grew to 10-15 men.
"Throughout the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland, Galicia, Lithuania, Belarus', Ukraine),
landowners encouraged the development of the klezmorim as a Jewish guild. During the 19th century, however,
after most of these territories had come under Tsarist rule, the guild-like structure of the klezmer ensembles
(kapelye, khevrisa) declined, surviving mainly in Austrian Galicia and Ottoman Moldavia." See "Jewish Music," IV: ii, The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 23 September 2003), http://www.grovemusic.com.
[Back]

[13]. Michal Józef Guzikow, born in Szklów, 2 September 1806; died in Aachen, 21 October 1837.
Described by the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online as Polish xylophonist who extensively toured Europe
before an untimely death of tuberculosis. He extended the range of the instrument "to two and a half chromatic
octaves and placed the keys on straw rolls in order to amplify the sound."
His repertory consisted of his own works, particularly fantasias on Polish themes and transcriptions
of concerti by Weber, Hummel, Hoffmeister and Paganini, e.g.,
La campanella. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Online, ed. L. Macy,
(Accessed on 22 September 2003), www.newgrove.com. See also J.S. Beckford, "Michał Józef Guzikow: Nineteenth-Century Xylophonist," Percussive Notes, Part I in vol. 33, no. 3 (June, 1995):
74-6; Part II in vol. 33, no. 4 (August, 1995): 73-5. [Back]

[14].
Roman Koropeckyj, The Poetics of Revitalization: Adam Mickiewicz between Forefathers' Eve, part 3, and Pan Tadeusz
(Boulder: East European Monographs; Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2001). [Back]

[15]. The RIPM database of 19th-century publications does not contain any references to this article, however
according to Elsner's biographer Alina Nowak-Romanowicz, in the period 1805-1819 Elsner was the musical correspondent of Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung
and reported about new works, presenting for instance a history of Polish opera, as well as reviewing musical life in Poland's capital.
See Alina Nowak-Romanowicz, Józef Elsner (Kraków: PWM, 1957), 170-171. [Back]

[17].
The names of: David Bajgelman, Józef Kamiński (1903-1972), Henoch Kon (1890-1972), Szlom Prizament, prop. Szlama or Salomon (1889-?),
Herc Rubin (1911-? USA), Icchok Szlosberg (1877-1930), Izrael Szajewicz (1910-1941)
do not appear in the New Grove nor in the Słownik muzyków polskich, but are included in the unpublished
Dictionary by Błaszczyk. Leon Zalman is not listed in either source. [Back]

[18]. Paweł Kochański (1887-1936) was a violinist, and Eli, his brother a cellist. See Tyrone Greive,
"Kochański's Collaborative Work as Reflected Through his Manuscript Collection," Polish Music Journal 1, no. 1 (1998), online.
Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976) was an American cellist of Ukrainian descent and is listed here erroneously. He did stop in Warsaw on his way to Leipzig and Berlin in 1921,
but did not become a significant member of the city's musical life. Adam
Furmanski is not mentioned in Błaszczyk's Dictionary nor in Słownik muzyków polskich. For Grzegorz Fitelberg see Iwona Bias,
Katalog tematyczny dziel Grzegorza Fitelberga (Katowice, 1979); Lilianna Moll, Grzegorz Fitelberg in Argentinien (Katowice, 1987); Leon Markiewicz,
Grzegorz Fitelberg, 1879-1953: Życie i dzieło (Warszawa: Biblioteka Narodowa, 1990s). Ludwik Urstein (1870-1939) was for a time a professor at the Music Institute
in Warsaw, leaving in 1912 to continue his career as recitalist in chamber music programs and teach privately. [Back]

[19].
Szymon Pulman (1890-1943) was a virtuoso violinist, teacher and conductor, who died in Treblinka; see Błaszczyk's Dictionary.
Marian Neuteichen and Adam Furmanski are not listed in Polish reference sources. The Bajgelman family of Łódź Jews
included numerous prominent musicians: Szymon (father) and Dawid (1887-1945), Szmul Zelman (1898-?), Szlama Lejb (1901-?),
Abram, Chaim, Chune (1916-?), and Róża. They all died during the war, see Błaszczyk, op. cit. Dawid was a composer, violist, and conductor in music theater.
[Back]

[21]. Henryk [Henri] Wieniawski (1835-1880) is listed in the New Grove Online without national identity: with Jewish
roots, Polish origins, a Russian passport, a Belgian residence and an English wife, he was a prime example of a cosmopolitan musician.
See W. Duleba, Henryk Wieniawski (Kraków, 1967); Emil Grabkowski Henryk Wieniawski i jego muzyka
[Henryk Wieniawski and His Music] (Warsaw, 1990); L.M. Nishida, A Study of Nineteenth-Century Violin Virtuosos:
Selected Composers and their Works (D.M.A. diss., California State U., 1997). [Back]

[22]. Adam Mincheimer, usually Minchejmer, sometimes Münchheimer (1830-1904) was an eminent composer and conductor,
active only in Warsaw. [Back]

[23]. Of the musicologists mentioned here the most eminent were:
Józef Reiss (1879-1956), author of numerous histories of Polish music and popular articles; Zofia Lissa (1908-1980), Poland's most influential musicologist
after World War II; and Mateusz Gliński (born Matteo Hercenstein, 1892-1976), the editor of Muzyka, music critic, conductor and composer.
References to the remaining musicologists, Leopold Binental (1886-1943) and Maksymilian Centerszwer (1889-?),
are in Błaszczyk, op. cit. According to Bret Werb, Maksymilian Centnerszwer died in
the Bialystok ghetto 1943. The source of this information is an article about the artist
Stanislawa Centnerszwer (Maksymilian's wife) in Yosef Sandel Umgekumene yidishe
kinstler in Poyln (Warsaw 1957), 49. [Back]